Card Life
by LeonthePretender
Summary: Card Queen tells a moving story about her hard life and miserable love.Wanna know more about our Card Queen?Then what are you waiting for,come in at once!


Ok, first of all, I do not own any character in FF8.

This is a story about the Card Queen, as I know, there aren't many fictions that mention her, so I wanna try something for her. Just imagine her standing alone in the middle of the desert! What is she doing, just waiting for playing cards with us? So… here's a story I wrote for her, and please give me some reviews, tell me how you like this kind of story.

I promise I'll write more interesting stories in return for your support!

Now, so much for mumbling, please enjoy.

_Once again on that card I put my fingers/To feel your smile shinning with vigor/Remember you once stood there saying/That life is just like a piece of card/Struggling and turning/Through vicissitudes of fate so hard/Fly your card into the blowing wind/May it take my heart to the distant green._

_Song of Cards by Julia_

No one could ever remember my name. For those who loved to play cards, I was the respectable "Card Queen" , and for the rest, I was the despicable "damn bitch never paid".

I roved about the world, living on those rare cards I won from all kinds of people. It was a hard life, but it wouldn't hurt anyway. People liked to play cards with me, and they knew nothing about me but my cards. And it was good.

Time will never wear away our cards if we take good care of them, but with ourselves it will. So I just could not always hold my youth and beauty as I hold my brand-new cards. Everyday I took out of my treasure, cleaned them one by one to tempt someone to lose theirs. Then I traded the new cards for some money. When I got battered ones, I always tried to renew and polish them because I hated to watch them declining the way as I did.

Life is just like a card game, as sung in " Song of Cards" by Julia, in which every trick one play only leads to the inevitable lose to the fate, when finally death marks the end. As for me, there were times when people could win me one hand or another, but eventually they would lose all their cards to me, for it was really hard to take anything away from someone who had nothing.

Traveling without purpose, playing cards for nothing—that seemed to be my whole life, till one day…

I remember it was when I stayed in one of the hotels in Balamb. There were always those young fishermen who came to challenge me after casting their nets , killing time. One afternoon, there came this young man holding a bunch of cards.

"I'm the best around here on cards," he said with a triumphant voice, " what rules would you like , Card Queen ?"

"Whatever you like." I chuckled.

"Well, then let's begin with 'Open', would you? True test of skills. "

I took out five cards casually and laid them on the table in plain view.

"They are no good." He said, showing his five high-level cards. It 's not bad to have strong cards if one does not only focus on the high-value sides of them. Unfortunately most people trend to neglect the week sides of those cards , which could be fatal.

He left depressively after losing everything to me.

"Excuse me, Ma'm, but…" the hotel manager came to me, "you've been here for 3 days, and…"

"I understand," I intercepted him, "I'm leaving."

"I'm sorry. You're really welcome, you know, we have a lot more customers when you're here."

Everything packed—actually almost nothing to pack, I was just about to leave when I saw a blonde in pretty pink suit standing in the doorway.

"Card Queen, right? " she asked, "think you can beat me?"

"Well," I looked into her smiling eyes full of confidence," let's go for the pier."

We settled down on the pier with seagulls and waves singing beside. Several kids gathered around to watch our games.

Playing with common cards as well as common rules, I found the girl had got a mind far riper than her face. I didn't choose strong cards nor did she left me any chance, so I lost. She gave the cards back to me, smiling: "It's a tie since I was lucky to get a stronger hand."

She stepped away quickly, full of vigor.

"There's no way you can beat her." Said one kid, "She's Quistis from Balamb Garden. She's really perfect at card games."

"Yeah! And she's even better at fight! She uses a whip. I've seen her killing a beast with only one strike!"

"Quistis…" I watched the girl leaving. Her never wearying steps reminded me of something so familiar so long ago.

Was it me who had rambled in the same tireless way ? Yes, but when ? I tried to ramble inward, searching in the ruins of my memories .

And there on the broad, open prairie, I saw two kids running about with endless energy. Me and my brother. He used to make me wonderful wreaths with the most beautiful flowers , to put them on my head and to tell me that I was the prettiest girl in the world. Those days were marvelous, sun high and full in the blue sky, bathing the grassland in a lucid viridity decorated with the glistening crystal of dews. White antelopes nibbled at the grass, indifferent to the low crackle of passing train heading for places we never knew in the distance. When we got tired, we sat down back on back on the ground and began to sing. Those were not from Julia's of course, they were just songs for children. But they were perfect for us.

Then catastrophes destroyed our happiness, as it always happened. Everything was destructed by the missile striking right through our roof. I could still remember the tragic heart-breaking scene clearly though I always forced myself not to do so. They were locked, buried deep inside where only nightmares could break through and evoke them out. But nightmares had been bothering me all the time.

Anyhow there was no way to cure a wound that would not scar .

After leaving the hotel, I lived in a small village near the town. Though not interested in card games, the villagers there were very kind to have me stay. It was likely to feel lost when you stopped doing the everyday routine despite its trivialism. So I borrowed a chocobo and rambled around Balamb when all of a sudden a strange idea occured to meto see Quistis. It was probably because her victory against me hurt my proud as a Card Queen, which seemed really ridiculous. But why not since I had nothing to do? I rode toward that palatial Garden. To my surprise she was right there in front of the gate, fiddling with her whip gloomily. My footsteps caught her attention.

"Oh! It's you. Coming for a revenge? "

"Gee just for a rematch. "

"All right. " She rose and took out a stack of cards, "These are all I have now and they'll soon be yours."

I took it as a joke, but it wasn't. She was completely absent-minded when playing cards with me.

"Take them back." I said, "It's a tie since you're in the right mood. "

"Thanks." She said, "So even you can see it, huh? I'm not a qualified SeeD just like what he said, really…"She was distracted once again until suddenly focused through my shoulder, shouting, "Seifer! Where're you going? "

"I'm going to Timber. Only three to face the entire empire! What the hell do the Garden think they're doing? " Said the man.

"Excuse me, but I've got to go." Quistis greeted me and caught up with the boy.

I didn't know what had happened to her exactly, but I could tell that she was tortured by love. I was sure that her intense passion hidden under the cool, hard shell must had been frustrated by someone. I knew how it felt.

I knew because I had a story of my own.

After the catastrophe I began my traveling life playing cards to survive. People called me "the card girl" at that time, some would let me stay for a while out of kindness to play with their children.

It was a very influential family that offered me a shelter when I traveled to Galbadia at the age of 16, where I met the 20-year-old handsome son. The young introvert talked little but played much. We played cards together almost every day and before I realized I was in love with him because no one had made me feel so warm ever since the death of my brother. I started to make some refined cards by myself only to lose to him on purpose. I didn't know if he had been conscious of my tricks.

One day he asked me to play after dinner. I chose the most difficult rules deliberately so that I could spent much time thinking every time before I put my card down. When I was calculating he stared at me without a word, until very late into the night.

"Stay tonight." He said in a calm, casual way as if talking about something trivial. It made my heart drum fiercely at once.

I've never regretted what I had done that night. I loved him, I became his, body and soul, and it's enough. But I couldn't stay there forever to harm him. Anyway his parents would have driven me away if I hadn't left at that time, for there was no place for a bastardy in that kind of family.

So I left, leaving him all the cards I had. I knew it was stupid to leave such things, but I had nothing more precious.

He had thought that his parents forced me to leave. It led to a never-ending fight between him and his family which culminated in his marriage with a singer, instead of a lady of noble birth, whose name is well-known all over the world nowJulia.

And my name, no one knows it.

　The next time I met Quistis was at the beautiful tranquil cityFisherman Horizon. Her Garden crushed into FH by accident and had been anchored there for some days. One night I saw her and several other kids playing music on the central square of the city. The music was wonderful heard from beneath a big dam where I was sitting alone in the corner. After a long time, the lights from the temporary stage extinguished. Quistis caught sight of me when they went back. She said something to others and then came for me.

"How come you're here?" She asked.

"I wander about."

"Oh, sounds nice."

"Who's the party for?"

"For our new leader. Selphie got the idea."

"Selphie?"

"Selphie Tilmitt. You know her?"

"No…" I said, "I don't know her. So, what's your next station?"

"The next…I'm not sure. Anyway we're going to assassinate a sorceress. If you'd like to play cards with me, or something like that, just follow that big stuff. " She pointed at the big Garden shining in the dark sky, "Or you can go in for me. Ask C.C. Club about me. They all know me. " She stood up, "Well, I've got to go." She left for the Garden.

"Have you ever thought of trying a different life? " She turned around to me on her way back and asked unexpectedly .

I stared at her in perplexity.

"You're very beautiful, and talented as well. " She nodded me and then ran away to catch up with her friends.

"To try a different life…" I murmured to myself.

I decided to follow them, haunting the Balamb Garden to play cards with the students. The "Card Queen" legend had spread fast throughout the Garden, resulting in the flows of students coming to me in the intervals of fights, some for playing and some for learning. In return I asked them to fetch me some rare cards. I felt as if I were young again when I stayed with them. However it was Quistis and her friends that had paid me visits most frequently. There was one bold boy called Zell, who lost all his cards away almost every time but never got annoyed, always rushed for some new ones cheerfully. Irvine the gunman, held nothing but cards of charming stars. The busy girl Xu would come to play with me at intervals despite her business. Still another girl, Rinoa, the most beautiful one of them, had a cute dog who often made troubles with our games. And their leader Squall challenged me sometimes. He never uttered a word, eyes cool and serious. He was one of my strongest opponents since I could never read his mind.

But it was that Selphie that I really cared about.

She is my daughter. My last name is Tilmitt.

After her birth, I struggled our lives on my cards. But the income was so limited that when she was four I found I could never afford both of us. I left her in the orphanageEdea's House. All the time I had been thinking of picking her up someday when I got better. But I never managed to.

Then I did see her. My daughter, vivid lovely girl with talking eyes shining lively, always scampered back and forth like a gust of wind. Now she had her own life and friends and she didn't need me nor miss me anymore. But I liked to watch her, sitting in front of me, losing her cards, rushing away. Sometimes she even bought me hot dogs from her Garden.

I wouldn't tell her the truth, never. I didn't deserve to be her mother. All I could do was just watching her in the distance, spending a few hours playing cards with her everyday. I even made a card of her using my remanent materials.

But we were destined to depart because they got a new mission and soon left the Garden.

So left I to continued my travel, only this time heading for ruins of desolation instead of cities of civilization. I was not sure whether I could survive among those monsters, but I didn't care. I was too tired to wander endlessly , too sick to amuse people like a living dead. All I had worried about was Selphie and there was no need to worry any more.

There to the deserted land would I go, to play cards with sweeping winds and roaring tides.

There across the deserted land would the winds blow, to wash away my memories of this card life.

I was trudging through the desert with monsters staring at me all around, ready to attack and devour me. I didn't care. Suddenly I heard an engine roaring like a thunder in spring. A flaming airship descending from heaven landed beside me from which rushed out Quistis and her friends. They surrounded me immediately.

"It's Card Queen!" cried Zell, "It's Card Queen!"

"I've got the card you asked for" Said Irvine.

"One more hand! I'll win this time, absolutely!" Said Selphie.

"It's so great to see you here!" Said Rinoa.

I felt something burning inside burst through my chest and turned into first tears and then laughter that I had missed for so many years.

"OK!" I shouted, "Let's play as much as we like!"

They cheered. Then I sat and play with these young people in the desert where I believed no one had ever played a card game before. Once a monster came close, one of them would go to kill it, and then came back to our games. Soon we were circled by piles of corpses of monsters. We were lost in ecstatic laugh that echoed far far away.

"Gee! I sure lost my ass off! " Zell said excitedly.

"Time is up. Let's go for our mission." Said their leader.

"YEAH! Let's do it! Let's kick some sorceress's ass!" Zell shouted and somersaulted twice.

All went back to the airship with confidence arguing to each other, except Quistis still sitting beside me.

"Selphie is your daughter, isn't she?" She asked without looking at me.

"No need to disguise the fact. I knew it. But I won't tell her. I know what you think." She turned to me, "And you'll not be a Card Queen forever, right? I've asked you if you would try a different life."

"Well..."

"You may think ," she broke in, "that it must be a quite easy mission for us this time so that we have the mood to play cards with you. you're wrong. Our mission is to go to the future to kill an insanely powerful sorceress, and we are completely unsure if we can survive. Nevertheless," she rose, "we face the death calmly, because we're SeeDs. There's no chance for us to win if playing cards with the fate. But we still have to try before all cards are gone, right ? " She gave me a credit card, "this is all I have. Don't refuse, be my guest, for I might not make my way back. if I do, I'll tell Selphie that her mother is so great a woman, that she defeats her fate. " She looked into my eyes, "You can make it , will you?" She walked toward the airship and turned around at the gate, stretching out her right hand holding the cards she had won.

"Don't you ever give up before all cards are gone! This is the first rule to play a card game!" She shouted and let go her cards which flew in the sun like a group of colorful butterflies. Their airship thundered up, turned around in the air and flew into distance.

Silently I piled up the cards I had treasured up for half length of my life and ignited all of them with a single match, except for one card. I took it out and stared at Selphie's smiling face on it.

"Don't you ever give up." I murmured to her, "Mom will pray for you all the time."

The card hidden deep into my clothes, I stood up and walked toward cities, leaving those cards burning and crackling behind.

Farewell, my old cards! Farewell, my old life!


End file.
